Our world is going through uncertainty and a troubling time. None of us can be sure about what our immediate future holds or how long before this passes. More and more areas are shutting down offices, schools, travel and arenas. Quarantine is becoming an everyday term. These are not things we can control. I, for one, like control!!

We can be in control. We can control how we spend our time, be creative, have something positive to think about and create beautiful quilts all while staying out of big crowds.

Do a brief inventory of your fabric and supplies. Clean your machine, change your needle and start a new spool of thread!!

If you need any fabric, tools or other supplies, put in an order online and have them delivered to your front door. Make sure to stock up on some fun, new fabrics so you have plenty of choices for new projects to keep you busy.

If you have children and their schools have been closed, now is a great time to get them involved in quilting with you! Use quilting to create lessons in color, basic math, geometry, history, geography and language arts. Let the children choose colors and fabrics for you or let them create blocks by drawing or coloring on plain blocks. Teach them to cut strips and pieces for you. Ask them to layout quilt blocks (they may create your next most favorite quilt pattern). Have them layout the quilt top and help you assemble your rows. Teach about a quilt sandwich while you're making lunch (marshmallow fluff or a white cheese makes good edible "batting"). Show your children how to quilt by hand and have your own quilting bee or ship your quilt to me and I will happily quilt it for you on my longarm machine (email me at laurel@onemorequilt.net for questions). After quilting, teach about what a binding is and why it is important.